Netanyahu Slams Corbyn for Honoring Murderous Palestinian Terrorists

Related:

The laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre and his comparison of Israel to the Nazis “deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone — left, right and everything in between,” Netanyahu stated.

By: AP and United with Israel Staff

British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is facing allegations of enabling anti-Semitism within his party, acknowledged Monday that he was present at a wreath-laying ceremony honoring Palestinian terrorists linked to the murder of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Having previously written about his attendance at the 2014 wreath-laying event, Corbyn claimed to have been at the graves of different Palestinian terrorists, but the Daily Mail uncovered photographs of Corbyn and sent a journalist to the cemetery, who discovered that he had been standing by a plaque at the graves of the Black September members.

The left-wing politician — a longtime critic of Israel — has faced mounting criticism since the Daily Mail‘s expose.

Corbyn previously claimed he was at the cemetery to commemorate the victims of a 1985 Israeli air attack on Palestinian Liberation Organization offices in Tunis.

On Monday, he acknowledged a wreath had also been laid to “those that were killed in Paris in 1992.” PLO official Atef Bseiso, whom Israel has accused of helping to plan the Munich Olympic attack, was gunned down outside a Paris hotel that year.

“I was present when it was laid. I don’t think I was actually involved in it,” Corbyn told reporters. “I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere because we have to end it,” he said, apparently referring to a Mossad hit on a terrorist as a “terrorist incident.”

The statement is unlikely to quell criticism from Jewish groups and Labour members who say Corbyn has allowed anti-Semitism to spread in the party.

“Being ‘present’ is the same as being involved. … Where is the apology?” tweeted Labour lawmaker Luciana Berger.

‘Unequivocal Condemnation from Everyone’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted that “the laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre and his comparison of Israel to the Nazis deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone — left, right and everything in between.”

Corbyn responded on Twitter that Netanyahu’s “claims about my actions and words are false.”

“What deserves unequivocal condemnation is the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces since March, including dozens of children,” he added, referring to the Palestinians, mostly terrorists, killed by the IDF while committing attacks and violently rioting on Israel’s border.

Corbyn has been accused of failing to expel party members who express anti-Semitic views and has received personal criticism for past statements, including a 2013 speech in which he compared Israel’s blockade of Gaza to Nazi Germany’s sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad during World War II.

The dispute recently boiled over after the Labour party proposed adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that differed from the one approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

Labour’s version omits some of the alliance’s language around criticism of Israel. The alliance’s definition says it is anti-Semitic to compare contemporary Israeli policies to the policies of the Nazis, a view Labour did not endorse.

In the latest development, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) revealed Monday that Corbyn’s 2015 campaign to become leader of the Labour Party was partly funded by Dr. Ibrahim Hamami of London, who is alleged to be aligned with Hamas, the genocidal anti-Semitic terrorist organization, and by retired Professor Ted Honderich, who stated in 2011 that Palestinians had a “moral right” to engage in terrorism.